c University of Oxford This document is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/
Outline 1 2 facing 3 4 5 6
...
Welcome I am : Information Manager for Oxford University Computing Services Manager of JISC s, a advisory service sebastian.rahtz@oucs.ox.ac.uk
Objectives Give an overview of what does Highlight the common issues we encounter Outline some recent UK government work Discuss what a university open source might say
The JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) coordinates educational IT structures in the UK. Directly funded by the state at the same level as research councils. JISC runs the physical network for HE and FE, provides services, and funds applied research. is funded from 2003-2006 as a Advisory Service. has 3.25 FTE based in Oxford University Computing Services Research Technologies section. provides unbiased advice and guidance about free and open source software for UK further and higher education. is not set up to be an advocacy group.
What s going on in UK HE and FE? Most universities deploy backoffice open source software Many FE colleges have open source at the grass roots but not institutionally Educational software like VLEs are on everyone s agenda No-one has addressed staff involvement in open source at a level The JISC is very much in favour of open source The UK government has fine words but not much action
What about Europe? Most governments have put studies of open source in place (eg France, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Finland, UK) Germany has seen a trial involving the GPL Spain has a provincial government deploying OSS widely The EU has agreed to software patents via an incredibly undemocratic process. An interesting saga.
What does do? Briefing material 2-3 page guidance notes Conferences Twice yearly Project support Face to face discussion Reports to JISC JISC open source Collaboration Working with other groups FE roadshows Regular 1 day intros Demonstration Software Knoppix and Open CD Survey Autumn 2004, Autumn 2006 Website (naturally) Workshops Focused small events International Conference March 2006
Recent Briefing Notes What is version control? Why is it important for due diligence? Where to go to try out some open source software 5 essential open source tools for the sysadmin Linux Standards Base: what is it and why is it important? KNOPPIX 3.6 Dual Licensing: A threat to Software? Standards and Assessing the Role of Libre/ Software for European Industry, The Hague, 19 November 2004 Open Standards and Libre Software in Government, The Hague, 18 November 2004 4th International System Administration and Network Engineering Conference, 30 September 2004
Conference January 20th 2004: : national frameworks Alan Robiette: developing JISC open source and practice Marc Bressers: OSOSS - open source and open standards in The Netherlands Rishab Ghosh: open source across Europe David Casal: open source business across Europe David Rayers: open source and the BBC Michael Coen: investing in proprietary, in-house or open source software or services
facing...
Licensing How to choose the right licence? It is hard to know at the start of a project which licence to use The GPL scares off industrial collaborators The LGPL is hard to understand BSD-like licences seem to invite other people to not play the game Creative Commons is unpleasantly attractive because it smells like open source but lets you be restrictive Note the anti-gpl noises coming from SAKAI.
Support Worries about: Speed of change: who knows where this stuff is going? No roadmap: how do we plan our support needs? Functional gaps: will we need support to plug them? Licensing issues: does this impact on who can provide support? ISV endorsements: will anyone admit to being able to help us?
Building communities Projects tend to start small, and often go in one of seven directions: stay small: remains a nerd tool gather users but no new developers: frustrated users fragment when primary leader loses interest: unattractive for new people develop power but with minimal documentation: no way to find the power grow within an expert community: high price for admission go commercial: stops being free simply die
What we aspire to Apache: technical strategy, formal democratic management, enviable reputation Docbook: described in all the books in the shop about XML Moodle: tops the rankings in Google Firefox: smooth as butter install, reference implementation uportal: shared development between academia and business
Community roles The visionary has the Big Idea, makes the long-term decisions The leader makes the medium-term decisions The programmer implements the functionality and makes the short-term decisions The tester finds the bugs The apprentice programmer fixes the bugs The documentor write the manual The communicator tells other people how good it all is The distributor packages it up for new users to try How many of these roles can safely be filled by one person?
...
Why do we get involved in open source? As either creators or consumers, we have a variety of motives for doing open source: to save money (of course) to share work (enlightened self-interest) because it works (software engineering) to learn (apprentice work) for fun (someone has to find it fun) for social justice (break the capitalist system) but not very often because we are told to.
Can we legislate for open source? It is not unreasonable for government to consider: ways of saving money in public procurement trying to avoid duplicate effort promoting efficient development of IT systems allowing for skill development Whether government has an agenda for fun or social justice is less clear!
Background 1: government trials www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?docid=2190#finalreport Viability of OSS software is a viable and credible alternative to proprietary software for infrastructure implementations; Obstacles to implementation... for desktop applications, the current lack of complex functionality which can affect ease of migration and interoperability... Costs and benefits... can generate significant savings in hardware and software costs for infrastructure implementation, and reduce the licensing costs and hardware refresh requirements for desktop implementation.
Background 2: Recommendations from open source trials Public sector bodies should: examine carefully the technical and business case for implementation of software and the role which OSS could play in current and future projects, working with their outsourced IT providers where appropriate; review the potential for server consolidation, comparing the benefits of OSS with proprietary solutions; consider the potential costs and benefits of migration to an OSS desktop for transaction users, (potentially in conjunction with use of thin client architecture solutions); identify the role of open standards in future IS/IT strategy and, in conformance with the e-government Interoperability Framework (egif);
Background 3: more recommendations from trials consider requirements for the development of skills in development, deployment and operation within the organisation, and review the availability of such skills in their outsourced IT service providers; review their current infrastructure and applications in collaboration with their outsourced IT providers where relevant well in advance of any planned procurement or renewal, and determine whether current technologies and IT inhibit future choice; and if so consider what steps may be necessary to prevent future lock in consider the benefits of incremental change by diversifying OSS use beyond the server platform to products like Email, LDAP, Web and internet Browser. (verbatim from egu )
Background 3: egif (e-government Interoperability Framework) http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/ egif.asp The e-gif defines the technical and specifications governing information flows across government and the public sector. They cover interconnectivity, data integration, e-services access and content management. Version 6.0 contains the high level statements, management, implementation and compliance regimes, whilst technical and specifications are contained in the Technical Standards Catalogue (TSC).
Justification for the UK government... always procure a solution that gives value for money. There is a need to ensure that interoperability of systems is provided and maintained. Every effort should be made to reduce the cost and risk to government systems... by: acquiring best value for money solutions removing the reliance on individual IT suppliers providing more flexibility in the development, enhancement and integration of systems vesting the ownership of bespoke and tailored software code with Government where this offers value for money. Security of government systems is vital. There is a need to maximise returns on and benefits from public investment in publicly funded R/D software. (verbatim from OSS Policy)
What does the say? http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/docs/ consult_subject_document.asp?docnum=905 Version 2 28 October 2004
The key decisions: UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis. UK Government will only use products for interoperability that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments. UK Government will seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services. Publicly funded R/D projects which aim to produce software outputs shall specify a proposed software exploitation route at the start of the project. At the completion of the project, the software shall be exploited either commercially or within an academic community or as OSS. (verbatim from OSS Policy)
The key decisions: UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis. UK Government will only use products for interoperability that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments. UK Government will seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services. Publicly funded R/D projects which aim to produce software outputs shall specify a proposed software exploitation route at the start of the project. At the completion of the project, the software shall be exploited either commercially or within an academic community or as OSS. (verbatim from OSS Policy)
The key decisions: UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis. UK Government will only use products for interoperability that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments. UK Government will seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services. Publicly funded R/D projects which aim to produce software outputs shall specify a proposed software exploitation route at the start of the project. At the completion of the project, the software shall be exploited either commercially or within an academic community or as OSS. (verbatim from OSS Policy)
The key decisions: UK Government will consider OSS solutions alongside proprietary ones in IT procurements. Contracts will be awarded on a value for money basis. UK Government will only use products for interoperability that support open standards and specifications in all future IT developments. UK Government will seek to avoid lock-in to proprietary IT products and services. Publicly funded R/D projects which aim to produce software outputs shall specify a proposed software exploitation route at the start of the project. At the completion of the project, the software shall be exploited either commercially or within an academic community or as OSS. (verbatim from OSS Policy)
Exceptions The on exploiting R/D software will not apply to software developed in the areas of defence, national security or law enforcement. It will also not apply to software developed by Trading Funds.
Next Steps by egu DTI, egu and JISC will disseminate information on the distinct types of OSI compliant licences to support use, development and exploitation of OSS by government organisations and publicly funded R/D teams. DTI will include the R/D software exploitation in guidance on collaboration agreements. Research Councils will include the R/D software exploitation in guidance on research grants and contracts. DTI, Research Councils and JISC will explore the feasibility of providing unified access to publicly funded R/D OSS. egu will explore with Government, industry and other stakeholders further activities to support OSS use in the public sector. (verbatim from OSS Policy)
Some possible FAQs How was this derived? Is this a law or a nice idea? How does it affect me in UK HE/FE? What software licence should we use, then? What do open standards and other vague terms mean? Who will judge whether the rules have been followed? Who will assist in archiving and disseminating software? What does exploited within an academic community mean? Is this integrated with an EU directive? How is the JISC responding to the? How do I go about re-assessing my institution s IT?
Oz does it better? Australian Government Information Management Office A Guide to Software for Australian Government Agencies contains good advice on: Degrees of engagement in open source Risk mitigation: the key risks involved in open source software are the same as those in proprietary software, with additions: 1 There can be multiple, independent, primary vendors for open source software to choose between. 2 As well as the usual range of support options, you can bring new feature development in-house and modify the core source. Licensing: includes six different scenarios and considers which of the more popular open source licences are likely to be applicable for each.
Oz guide caveats for HE Remember that Saving money is not always the best starting point. All take and no give is not conducive to the health of open source. HE does often have significant technical expertise in-house. The academic side of HE is not used to proper software procurement
...
The JISC open source (draft) The JISC was developed by in June 2004, revised in October 2004, and submitted to JISC committees in February 2005. It covers: 1 Policy guidelines for JISC when writing calls for proposals, ITTs etc 2 Policy guidelines for JISC services (and JISC projects generally) 3 Policy guidelines for JISC-funded software development activities specifically
JISC draft and copyright Copyright ownership of software, diagrams, schemas, documentation, manuals, user interface and source code must be recorded, and may be vested with a JISC-appointed body Projects must maintain an IPR register, listing all contributors to their software and who owns the copyright on contributions The ownership of code which is to be developed in joint projects must be established before work begins
JISC draft and copyright Copyright ownership of software, diagrams, schemas, documentation, manuals, user interface and source code must be recorded, and may be vested with a JISC-appointed body Projects must maintain an IPR register, listing all contributors to their software and who owns the copyright on contributions The ownership of code which is to be developed in joint projects must be established before work begins
JISC draft and copyright Copyright ownership of software, diagrams, schemas, documentation, manuals, user interface and source code must be recorded, and may be vested with a JISC-appointed body Projects must maintain an IPR register, listing all contributors to their software and who owns the copyright on contributions The ownership of code which is to be developed in joint projects must be established before work begins
JISC draft and licensing Copyright of software, documentation, design materials, manuals, user interface and source code must be released under an OSI-approved open source licence, unless the bid explicitly argues why this should not be the case and proposes an alternative licence. Software must in any case be licensed and publicly available, for any use and at no financial cost, throughout UK higher and further education The open source licence most appropriate in any given circumstances will depend on the mechanism chosen for exploitation and/or on-going development.
JISC draft and licensing Copyright of software, documentation, design materials, manuals, user interface and source code must be released under an OSI-approved open source licence, unless the bid explicitly argues why this should not be the case and proposes an alternative licence. Software must in any case be licensed and publicly available, for any use and at no financial cost, throughout UK higher and further education The open source licence most appropriate in any given circumstances will depend on the mechanism chosen for exploitation and/or on-going development.
JISC draft and licensing Copyright of software, documentation, design materials, manuals, user interface and source code must be released under an OSI-approved open source licence, unless the bid explicitly argues why this should not be the case and proposes an alternative licence. Software must in any case be licensed and publicly available, for any use and at no financial cost, throughout UK higher and further education The open source licence most appropriate in any given circumstances will depend on the mechanism chosen for exploitation and/or on-going development.
More points in the draft JISC Trademarks Use of trademarks to establish reputation and trade on association is up to the project, not the JISC. Patents Any patent applications associated with the project should not interfere with free distribution of software. Dependencies Projects must record which associated software is needed to make their work run. Archiving All documents and software code must have a preservation and archiving strategy. Testing and quality assurance All software must have a testing framework in place, and demonstration of standards compliance.
More points in the draft JISC (2) Version control All software must be developed using version control software, and the history must be preserved by the project. Sustainability and communities Projects should, where appropriate, encourage and support user and development communities. Documentation Documentation must archive all forms of documentation, including mailing lists and forums. Software development and maintenance Software should follow good engineering practice, and be demonstrable to, and testable by, peer communities.
...
A university problem? We need to deal with: individuals contributing to open source software staff creating software which they want to open source teachers making online resources research projects collaborating with industry partnerships with other academic institutions
The legal and contractual situation in the UK any act of creation generates copyright it does not have to be claimed most academic contracts specify that all creations are property of the employer usually, there are specific exclusions for books and articles copyright in learning materials is usually claimed by the university the employee has a duty to assist the university in exploiting any created material software is hard (but not impossible) to patent
Difficulties arising the university s exploitation system for software only knows about selling licences the university does not have a revenue-sharing arrangement for consultancy-based exploitation the lawyers are reluctant to sanction open source exploitation because they see it as liability without revenue if the university relinquishes copyright, it is at the risk of having to buy back a later release of the product
Examples of (e-learning) open source exploitation in academia uportal portal framework, development by top American universities ( stone soup group) to meet their specific needs Bodington Small UK open source VLE, developed by Leeds, Oxford, UHI; community based on shared problems Moodle Simple but very effective VLE, distinguished by its exemplary open source community LAMS innovative e-learning mediating framework, new work being funded under an open source model
Policy proposals (1) The primary concerns for an educational institution s IT procurement strategy should be demand (that is to say, why do we need the system) and value (what will it cost us). Beyond that, the single most important consideration is the preservation of data and the interoperability of systems. 1 New software acquisitions should demonstrate conformance to open standards and interoperability with open systems.
Policy proposals (2) At each point on the procurement and deployment chain, software should be assessed on its merits. 2 and proprietary software options should be assessed using the same criteria, considering of total cost of ownership over the expected lifetime of the deployment.
Policy proposals (3) An institutional IPR should acknowledge the significant role played by open source methodologies in terms of potential exploitation routes. 3 Software development by staff and students must maintain a register of IPR. 4 Software for which the copyright belongs to the institution must be exploited. 5 licensing must be available as an exploitation method, and will be the default method where no alternative is proposed. 6 Income derived from services and training associated with an open source product must be shared with the developers. 7 The open source licence chosen should ensure that the institution is able to freely use all future versions of the software.
Policy proposals (4) There must be procedures in place so that staff can do work on open source projects in good conscience, without removing the protection afforded to the institution by retention of copyright. 8 A register of offically-deployed open source software must be maintained for each unit. 9 A register of open source software for which staff may contribute code, documentation and support must be maintained for each unit. It must say whether contributions remain the property of the institution, or whether copyright has been assigned to a body maintaining the software. 10 Staff and students may deploy additional open source software for research or teaching, but may not contribute institutional intellectual property to it without explicit permission.
...
s These are things we want to get into IT in the UK: 1 Embracing open source software is an attitude, not a binary choice 2 is a valid, and a good default, exploitation route 3 Standards for your data are as important as current ease of use 4 There is no stasis. Things will always change